When All is Lost, Hope is Born
by Hikami42
Summary: /On Hiatus/ After Sonic has died, Tails puts his shoes on and through them, Sonic's spirit can talk to him. Eggman takes over the world, forcing our heroes into hiding. Sonic must learn to master new abilities to help free the world from Robotnik.
1. Prologue: Death is Forever and Always

**8/12 Edit:** We are currently reworking this story's plot. All possible plot points including Nick have been changed as we've decided to go in a different direction. The semi-OC is no longer apart of the plot, and the whole story has been shifted to focus completely on Sonic and Tails. That being said, most of the story is still the same, so any returning readers will not notice any major differences (besides the second section in this chapter, which has been completely rewritten). To any new readers, consider yourselves lucky that you do not have to adapt.

_When All is Lost, Hope is Born  
><em>_By: Hikami42 – Hikari-san42 and Yami-sama42  
><em>_Rating__: T  
><em>_Summary:_Sonic the Hedgehog, hero of Mobius, is dead. But, no worries! He's still very much alive in spirit, literally. His soul is attached to his shoes because of his reluctance to transfer to the afterlife, and he is allowed to follow and talk to whoever is wearing those sneakers. Luckily for him, Tails is a sentimental little fox. But, things are turned upside down for the duo as Robotnik finally takes over the planet, and they are forced to go underground. Now Sonic must adjust to his newfound state of being and master his new abilities in order to help free the world of Robotnik's tyranny._  
><em>_Pairings__: None  
><em>_**Warnings**__**: **__Character death, though you won't miss him. He'll rear his annoying head soon enough. Also, cursing.  
><em>_**Notes**__:__ Hikari: Oh gosh… I have no idea how to get started with this… Well, this story is very spur of the moment, but it has a lot of meat to it. It starts out a little depressing, but I promise that it ends up being a comedy. We just have to get through the dull and depressing exposition so the funny can be brought to you. That being said, we are playing with stuff here that isn't light in the least, and we'll try to keep it from getting __too__ dark, but still heavy enough for the subject manner.  
>Yami: We've discussed something similar several times, but never before have we considered this. This is, until Ashley over there thought it up. Her brain cooked it up and her mouth (or fingers, if you wanna get technical about it) delivered it, hot and ready to be served to my own equally creative mind so that we could stir our collective thoughts and stew on it until we could think of something utterly delicious for you all to read! We think we've really got something here, so we really hope you enjoy it!<br>__Disclaimer__: Neither one of us would __try__ to claim the Sonic franchise. Ever. Especially after seeing the trailer for _Sonic Generations. _Chances are, we'd screw it up and everyone would hate us. So, all recognizable material belongs to SEGA and its affiliates. We're just borrowing, and we have the intention to return with only a few minor dings. _

* * *

><p><em><strong>5 o'clock; Late Afternoon, Early Evening <strong>_

_**Undisclosed Location**_

o0o

Suffocation means to stop breathing, or to prevent somebody or something from something else.

It also means to die from lack of air.

One thing that most people don't know is that I am terrified of water. I may try to dumb it down a bit by saying something stupid like I'm just a bit '_uncomfortable_' around it, but in truth, nothing scares me more.

Kind of ironic, coming from the guy that fights robots and mad scientists on a nearly daily basis.

Yeah, sure, I have some OTHER major fears, like Eggman winning, never being able to run again and my friends getting hurt or even killed because of me or my crazy exploits or my fight against the doctor. But I've never really thought about what would happen if I died. And I don't think anyone else did either. We really should have, honestly. It would've saved _soooo_ much trouble.

Well, it doesn't matter anymore, because that's exactly what they're doing.

As for myself, well… I can tell you how it all played it. It's a bit gruesome, sure, but this is war. (Such a scary word… I shudder to think about it…)

So, pull up a chair and cop a seat. Lemme tell you all about it.

For this story to start, another needs to end…

o0o

Underneath the water, there is no air. As land dwellers, people need oxygen to survive. Water is the substantial life-giving substance that all living creatures need to continue their existence.

But water is also deadly, dangerous. Water is used for recreation, life, and also death. If one can swim, it is a great joy to take a cool, refreshing dip. But for those who cannot, being trapped without a flotation device can become deadly.

This is where the story begins.

He kicked and flailed as hard as his powerful limbs would let him, eyes squeezed shut. His lungs and throat burned as if by putrid acid, the cool liquid around him sending feelings of pins and needles ripping through his nerves like wildfire. Shiny golden buckles, dulled in the dim, and blazing red shoes plowed through the mass around them, struggling to find purchase in the nonsolid. All around him, nothing, nothing but the darkness below and the sunlight above. The surface taunted him, laughing at his misfortune. He was alone, utterly alone, no backup coming, no savior on the horizon.

Fate was cruel, he realized, and no one, especially not him, had luck that ran forever.

Black tinged the edges of his vision, the precious air he had left tasted stale, the sweet necessary poison completely encompassing him. Fatal attraction described his in-resistance to danger and trouble followed him like his fate's shadow, much like a lost puppy.

He tried his hardest to force himself upward, but to his horror, he just sank lower, faster. He tried not to open his mouth to release the wail of desperation growing within his chest, as he knew it would just kill him more quickly. As it was, he was down to his last wind, the home stretch, so to speak, and the realization slowly sank in that this time, he wasn't going to make it.

As the last of his air ran out, he finally stopped his struggling. Blinded, numb, and with the feeling of every nerve and respiratory organ burning with the strain of continuing to search for what wasn't there, the fire of his pain overshadowed the fire of his will to go on. He slowly gave in to the inky black comfort of unconsciousness, never to leave the dark clutches of death's black wings. Emerald eyes dulled and darkened, the flicker of life dying in their eternal depths. On a last remaining shred of strength, gloved fingers reached towards the light of the late daylight.

The last thing that ran through his mind was thoughts of his friends and his little brother. How they would fare. How much he would miss running, the wind blowing through his quills.

He was gone before he had the chance to say goodbye, even if only to himself.

o0o

_**Early Evening**_

_**Hill Top Zone General Hospital**_

o0o

At that exact moment, Amy Rose, nineteen years old and fully bloomed into womanhood, was rushing around the crowded halls of Hill Top Zone's only hospital, dodging doctors and her fellow nurses. She was clad in standard issue hospital scrubs, though hers had the added bonus of having Sonic's smiling, chibi face on them, while her hands were gloveless, the peach fur too-pale in the harsh industrial lights. Her long quills were pulled into a tight ponytail style, allowing her forest green eyes to shine without anything blocking them.

Quickly, she slid around a corner, slithering into a room with practiced ease, the door barely making a _swish_ as she went. The patient inside was an older man, a withered dog with cancer, if her memory was correct, and she sent him a sunny smile as she glanced at the machine keeping track of his heart beat. He looked at her with sad eyes, unaffected by her happy demeanor, and simply grunted when she offered him a chirpy greeting.

Ever impervious to the depression of her patients, the young nurse simply hummed a simple rhythm under her breath, taking care to explain to him what she was doing as she worked. Carefully, she logged all of his vitals and checked his IV before asking him how his meals had been. When he didn't answer, she sighed and took the time to glance over his menu choices, scowling.

"Mr. Palant, you can't just order jello and expect to stay strong," she admonished, brushing a hand across her forehead. "I'm going to suggest to the head nurse that they supply you with a more rounded diet, alright?"

"Fine," the old man answered, somehow managing to sound exactly like a teenager.

Amy sighed and finished her work before backing out of the room, making sure to remind him off the call button as she left. Quickly, she padded down the hall to her next patient, shooting a smile at another nurse as they crossed paths.

Amy had been working as a nurse for the past few months, her natural caring nature allowing her to quickly become attuned to the sickly environment, and she was like a ray of sunshine to the otherwise bleak building. Her life had been a rocky one, as she had never finished school when she had been a girl, instead choosing to globetrot after her first and only love, Sonic the Hedgehog, and she had only recently decided on her path in life. Luckily for her, she was very adept at her studies and she managed to graduate from nursing school fairly quickly.

She adored her job. Being able to help people when they needed it filled her with an extreme sense of self-satisfaction, as if she was somehow helping Sonic along with his cause in her own way. In the past, she felt like a third wheel, unable to honestly do anything to help her hero and crush beside bash enemies over the head with her patented Piko-Piko hammer, but now, she was actually useful, something which she couldn't help but be thankful for.

Still though, because of her place of employment, she barely got to see any of her friends, least of all Sonic, and, sometimes, she dearly missed them. But, she had already made plans to head up to the Mystic Ruins this weekend for a surprise visit with Sonic and his adopted little brother Tails, and she only had a few more patients to check on before her shift was over and she could dart to her apartment and grab her things before catching a train to Metropolis and then a plane to Station Square.

"Amy! Amy!" a female voice called as the hedgehog had just reached to grab the knob of her next patient's room. The young woman turned to look and was greeted with the image of her closest friend here in Hill Top Zone, a doctor named Renae. She offered the cat a smile as she approached, noticing that her lab coat unbuttoned and askew, as if she had been in the process of taking it off before she took her mad dash toward the pink Mobian.

"What's up, Renae?" Amy asked, leaning all of her weight onto her left foot and placing her hands on her hips. "I haven't seen you rushing around like this since that volcano erupted last month."

"I…was leaving… and I got… a call. My friend is a paramedic," she said in between heaved breaths, placing a hand over her heart. "He just got a call, and he knew that I knew you – said I should tell you immediately."

For some reason, Amy's heart dropped a little at these words and she crossed her arms in front of her chest in a feeble attempt to comfort herself. "Tell me what…?" she asked after a few seconds of tense silence.

"It's Sonic," the cat answered, reaching out and placing a hand on Amy's shoulder. "Brad said they found him… in Aquatic Ruin Zone…"

o0o

_**11 o'clock PM – One day later**_

_**Tails' Work Shop, Mystic Ruins**_

o0o

Tails was numb.

He honestly didn't feel anything.

He certainly didn't feel that huge hole eating away at his insides or the dry tear tracks on his face. He didn't feel his heart beating in his chest or his lungs heaving as he tried to take in air. He was out of touch as the Tornado was ripped apart, bit by bit, by his hands – the very same hands that had taken it apart and put it back together countless times with care. If he could feel, he was sure that he wouldn't have been able to function, completely cleaved in two, but, as it was, he was dead inside.

_Dead, just like him._

His mouth was set in a permanent line, his blue eyes stormy with unshed tears. Slowly and methodically, the fox yanked out wiring and mechanics, throwing them across the room with a faint hatred. They landed with expensive sounds, but the teenager didn't seem to care. His black ears were folded low on his head, fluffy tails for once completely still.

This was a bad sign. The fox's tails were never _not_ moving. No matter how bad a mood he was in, Tails never consciously stopped his tails from moving. If he was holding his tails still, then that meant he was seriously trying not to think about something, trying to distract his mind from a major event, something so monumental that his inner self had yet to acknowledge it as true… _There was no way he could be gone_.

The house was silent. Upstairs, one would find the kitchen in the same disrepair. Packets of hotdogs had been ripped apart and shoved down the disposable. Cans of chili met the same fate, while bags of hotdog buns had been torn apart and thrown out the open window, for the birds to eat. The living room looked similar, with a video game system laying, murdered and smashed open, in the middle of the floor. A look up the stairs was met with the same result.

Only one room was left untouched. The door was made of thick wood, painted an emerald green. The inside was in shambles, but one could tell it was from the person living in it, not kitsune rage. White gloves were scattered around the room, the bed was unmade, and random foodstuffs was hidden in corners. The room had been treated with an almost reverence by the fox, the young one simply closing the door and continuing on his rampage.

He was almost done with the plane. The front seat, the one _he_ regularly sat in, was the only thing that stayed inside the skeletal shell that was left of the mechanical marvel, like a small monument. The rest was scattered on the floors of the room, cracked and broken. The fox was struggling to breathe at this point, too overcome with grief and denial and _he couldn't be gone._

Not that he would admit it to himself.

He sank to the floor, finally allowing his tears to flow freely once more. Cracked sobs wracked his frame, sending shivers down his backbone and making his own body quake. He heaved in breath, his throat ragged from all of the sobs that ripped their way free, trying to break through the fog clouding his thoughts. His tails curled around his body in comfort, and he hugged one close to his face, wailing deeply into it. The sound was desperate, thick, and full of anxiety. It was the cry of a mourning friend, charge, and brother. The sadness was tangible in the room, hanging off every broken piece of machinery and cloaking the space with darkness. It crept around the fox, testing his boundaries, trying to get past the numb barrier he put up, and it slowly wormed its way through the small cracks, picking at his nerves. It laughed at him, his weakness and vulnerability, cackling as it confirmed what he was trying to deny, showing him images of a blue form floating in an endless body of water, unable to move, to run away.

_He wasn't fast enough_, the darkness hissed at him, snaking into his ears. _He had no backup. He was ours before he realized it._

The fox could feel his sanity slipping through his fingers. _He_ was gone, he whispered to himself in his mind, trying to shove the darkness away. His brother, his best friend, his _hero_ was _gone_. Never to be seen again. Never to hug him, tell him how great of a builder he was, make him chili dogs, pat him on the back, protect him from lightning, buy him mint candy, fight with him, joke with him, celebrate another birthday with him, make another corny speech, ask him to distract Amy, help him annoy Knuckles, laugh with him, or just simply _smile_ at him.

_Sonic_, hero to Mobius, symbol of peace, fighter of the good fight, _Tails' one constant thing, who had __promised__ him that he would always be there, no matter what_, was gone. The whole world was in mourning, in shock and trying to come to grips with the fact that he wasn't around anymore. Most were surprised, puzzling over his… _death_, and wondering how it could have been so _easy_, quick, and unexpected. He was there one instance and gone the next.

Tails had withdrawn from the world, not wanting anyone else's sympathy. Everyone pretended they knew Sonic. They all cried over his death. They knew _nothing_! _He_ was the one that had been beside Sonic for most of his life. _He_ was the one that saved Sonic's life on countless occasions. _He_ was the one that Sonic chose to hang out with! _He _was the one that felt like someone was constantly pouring salt into the gaping, seething wound now taking the place of his heart.

But now, Sonic was gone.

And he was alone.

_Just like your hero was,_ the darkness hissed, _so alone that all is lost._

Of course, he had Knuckles and Amy and the others, but they didn't _compare_. They didn't understand him the way Sonic had. Sonic knew that when he was upset all he needed was a hug and a few hours alone in the Workshop. Amy was constantly calling the house, trying to get him to come out and help her shop for the funeral. _The funeral!_

He had disconnected the phone.

Now he sat in the darkness of the Workshop, screwdriver lying forgotten next to him. He stared at it, analyzing the yellow handle and chipped metal bit of it.

Sonic had given him that screwdriver.

Suddenly, it was mocking him, laughing at him for being so weak. Sonic wouldn't be crying if their roles were reversed. He would be up and out, helping Amy plan and plotting his next move afterwards. The screwdriver seemed to smirk at him, asking him what _he_ would be doing after he formally told Sonic goodbye. Would he just come back here and wallow in self pity, waiting for Knuckles or someone to come and collect him – the fifteen year old child who couldn't take care of himself – and take him to go live with them? He knew that's what would happen. He was too fragile, too connected to the loss, unable to cope and heal.

Of course, it wasn't just _his_ loss. It was the world's.

Suddenly, he had scooped the tool up and thrown it harshly across the room with a loud, insane sounding cry. It crashed into the wall across from him, but survived all the way to the ground, landing with barely a _ping_. He couldn't _take_ it anymore. He stampeded into the house, throwing open the door and cutting across the kitchen. He was up the stairs seconds later, crashing through the door to Sonic's room and landing on Sonic's bed face first, burying his head in the covers.

The bed still smelled of his best friend.

That was too much. The tears were back; this time to stay. He cried silently this time, not able to make a sound. They burned as they left his eyes, pooling in his fur and staining it a dark orange. Inside his head, he asked Sonic _why_. WHY did he have to leave him?! WHY did he have to do something so stupid as go near water when Eggman was around?! Why? _Why? WHY?_

_Why couldn't I do anything to save you_?

There it was. The blame. It rested purely on his shoulders, like a thick blanket. It weighed down on him, making it hard to stay sitting up. It was _his_ fault. _He_ was the one that had told Sonic were Eggman was. He was the one that had intercepted the signal and translated it.

He was the one that didn't take the time to consider that it was a trap.

He was a horrible, _horrible_ person. He had caused the death of everyone's hero. He wouldn't be surprised if the whole of Mobius woke up tomorrow morning, cursing his nam-…

"_Tails_…"

His ears popped up, thoughts careening to a halt. The darkness seemed to hiss at the interruption, but could do nothing to stop it. A familiar voice filled the room, filling him with warmth and peace. He opened his eyes, running a hand over them to clear them of any offending liquid, and blinked owlishly, sniffling a little.

The voice didn't come again, and he was sure that he'd been imagining things, his fragile sanity finally shattering as the darkness took over again.

He looked around the room, taking in the familiar mess and smiling wetly, trying to scold Sonic in his mind for being such a slob. However, he couldn't really make his inward chuckle come to the surface and it ended up sounding like another sob.

To keep his mind off crying again, he continued looking at his surroundings. The closet door was slightly ajar, being held open by something red and shiny…

Before he knew what he was doing, he was off the bed and in the closet, swooping down and grabbing whatever it was that was keeping the door from closing.

A pair of Sonic's sneakers.

He hugged the shoes close to his chest like a lifeline, forcing his heartbeat into the red surface. Slowly, he made his way back to the bed. He eased himself back down onto it, loosening his hold on the sneakers so he could look at them closer.

They were dinged, the red scuffed in places where Sonic had slid across the ground. They weren't worn in the least though; Sonic had always taken good care of his shoes.

These _were_ Sonic. Sonic _was_ these shoes. He was naked without his shoes. He was incomplete. He wouldn't go anywhere if they were missing, though they never disappeared unless Tails himself had hidden them out of spite. The shoes were the only material things that mattered to Sonic.

Now, just like everything else, they didn't matter.

The fox placed the shoes on the ground, and, acting on a whim, he slipped his own pair off. Then, quickly so he wouldn't think twice about it, he shoved his feet into the red sneakers.

They slid right in, and Tails prepared himself to be shot down. There was no way the gods would let _him_ wear Sonic's shoes. Sonic, the chosen one, was surely rolling in his unburied casket.

However, nothing happened, and Tails wasn't sure exactly when he had started crying again, but suddenly he was aware of it. He bent down to buckle the shoes completely, finally feeling the huge hole in his gut shrink a little as the darkness dissipated completely, as if it had never existed.

Tears flowed freely down his cheeks, making his fur sticky and messy, but he didn't care. Thickly, he breathed in a sigh of relief, wiggling his toes in the shoes, and finally, _finally_ feeling more put together than he had in what seemed like forever.

He was just about to get up and leave the room forever, when something stopped him.

Something that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

"Hey, 'lil'bro, what'cha crying about?"

* * *

><p><em>Told you he wouldn't be gone long. <em>

_Phew. This chapter is a doozy. We thank you for getting this far and dealing with the aaaaangst. _

_Please review? Please? _


	2. Chapter1: The Second Wind

_When All is Lost, Hope is Born_

_Chapter 1 – The Second Wind_

_Warnings:__ None_

_Notes__: This chapter's coming pretty quick, because we're on a roll and we have it planned. Don't expect them this quickly once we get deeper into the plot. _

o0o _**RECAP**_ o0o

He was just about to get up and leave the room forever, when something stopped him.

Something that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

"Hey, 'lil'bro, what'cha crying about?"

o0o

_**11:30 PM**_

_**Tails' Workshop, Mystic Ruins **_

o0o

Unreal was the best way to describe it. It was corny, overused, and expected, but in truth, the only way to describe it. It was unreal, extraordinary, strange, supernatural… and completely unexpected. He was… glowing, in numerous senses of the word. He had a casual expression on his face and he let off a somewhat stereotypical bluish glow. His eyes were bright and his ears finely perked, always on his guard. His feet garbed in his own version of his infamous red and white sneakers and his hands ever encased in white gloves, he 'stood' over top of the fox like an ethereal guardian. The most shocking (but the least surprising) part was that he was, in fact, floating.

Tails had spun around at the strange, echo-y voice, twitching at the familiar adjective used to address him. When his eyes landed on the ghost-like hedgehog standin- er… _floating_ in front of him, it took all his self control not to gasp.

That self control didn't extend to his fainting reflex however, because his world went black seconds later, one word hanging in his mind.

_Sonic…_

Blinking several times in surprise, Sonic furrowed his brow in confusion. "Um… Tails…?" he said, trying to rouse the fox. "Taaaaaaiiiiils…" Huffing, he moved closer to the kit to jab a finger in his side. Seeing as it made no difference, he glared down at him. "You're really gonna make me do this…?" he asked the despondent kitsune. Silence reigned. He sighed. "You are."

The fox's ears pricked a bit at the familiar voice, and he twitched slightly, a muffled "merp" coming out of his mouth. The hedgehog rolled his eyes, reaching down to grab the fox's legs and toss them onto the bed. However, his plans were quickly squashed when the young male's legs wouldn't budge, like they weighed one hundred pounds instead of four. The blue one placed his hands on his hips, tapping his foot. He tried again after a few seconds deliberation, this time from a different angle. When that didn't work, he scowled. "Why the hell are you so _heavy_? !"

Eventually he managed to pull Tails into a more comfortable position, and with a heavy sigh, he sat (in reality, he more like drifted) down on the bed as well, sitting with his unconscious brother, somewhat impatiently waiting for him to wake up. To pass the time, he took to poking the other in the ankle and studying his old pair of shoes.

About forty-five minutes later, Tails groaned and sat up, rubbing his head. "Ugh." He mumbled to himself, blinking multiple times to get rid of the black spots dancing in his vision. "Did anyone get the truck of the numbered that hit me?"

"_Heeey_… That's my line! …I should really have it trademarked or something… And lookit there! You're finally awake! How'd'ya feel, Sleeping Beauty?"

"Argh!" Tails was suddenly wide awake, large blue eyes widening at the sight of the slightly see-through Sonic. He scrambled back until his two tails were pressed firmly between his back and the headboard of the bed, hands grasping at the sheets and feet continuing to try to push him through the wall and into the next room. "Ooooh man... I didn't dream it… You're _still _here! What're you doing here? ! What'd I do wrong? ! _Why are you haunting me_? !" He paused, heaving for breath. Sonic was here. Floating in front of him. In almost flesh and bone. "Wait…" He trailed off, mind spinning through the past few hours. "This is about the Tornado, isn't it? I knew you loved the plane, Sonic, but jeeze…"

The hedgehog dropped his smile and traded it for a confused look. "Hm. Well, in order; one, I live here; two, nothing as far as I know; three …well that just doesn't make sense and four; …what was that about the Tornado…? If something's broken, I'm _sure_ you can fix it. You're, like, a freakin' genius." He paused and cast his unnaturally bright green eyes over the fox, finally taking notice of his strange position. Titling his head to the side and pricking an ear, he pointed a finger at the kit, his entire demeanor screaming just how calm, collected and laidback he was. "What's wrong with you? You look like you've seen a ghost."

This was too much for the fox. Suddenly, the whole of his situation crashed down on him and his sanity finally snapped in two. His body started quaking, tears streaming out of his eyes and weird noises escaping from his throat. He worked hard to keep everything bottled in his chest, but his body didn't want to cooperate.

Loud laughter filled the room seconds later.

Immediately, Sonic's ears flattened, a look of shock overcoming his face. "What? What's wrong! ?" The laughter continued, growing in volume. "Tails? _Tails_ snap out of it! You sound insane! What's _wrong_, damnit! ?" The kitsune made no response, no sign he'd even heard. _Well, desperate times call for desperate measures._ Raising a hand and shutting his eyes, he struck the hysterical teen. Triangular ears buried deep into blue fur as their owner sat in shock at what he had to do.

The slap hit the fox full on the face, snapping his head to the side, a muffled curse leaving the fifteen year old mouth. A golden arm rose slowly, gloved fingers meeting fur and probing the throbbing spot. He sat in silence, shock coloring his face and his back ridged. "Sonic…" His voice cracked, coming out shaky. "How…?" He couldn't seem to continue. He turned slowly, sad tears brimming his eyes this time. Deliberately, he extended his arm, index finger pointing out, and leaned toward his supposed dead brother. With great patience, he eased his finger close to Sonic's forehead, the hedgehog watching him with an unreadable expression. However, the fox lost in nerves millimeters from the blue fur, and his hand just hovered there, not moving back or forward. Expression slightly exasperated, Sonic bowed forward, lightly allowing Tails' finger to brush his brow.

Seconds later, Sonic was knocked off the bed in a great bear hug, the little fox crying and squeaking and sniffling apologies and scoldings and casual phrases. Shimmering tears stained the translucent blue fur, peach chest wet with the burdens of grief and unrestrained happiness. The hedgehog wrapped his arms around his young charge, fingers twisting through springy bangs and others through smooth tail fur. He hid his own face into the other comfortingly, eyes glowing with sympathy. He had no idea what was wrong with his little bro, but he was determined to make him feel better.

"Sonic! _Sonic_! I can't believe this! You're _here_ and I can _feel_ you! What the heck is going on? !" The little fox wailed into the damp fur of the hedgehog. "You were _gone_! I thought I'd never see you again!"

The blue one paused and looked into the face of the fox. He was silent in his thoughts until, "…Where did I go?"

"You don't remember, do you?" Tails asked, shrugging Sonic's arms off his shoulders and grabbing the left one in both of his hands. He hoisted it up slowly so it was level with the only completely opaque thing on the hedgehog's physique, his eyes. "You're translucent." Short and to the point, the fox didn't bother beating around the bush. Not with something as sensitive as this.

Sonic looked at his own hand and realized that he could, indeed, barely see the kit's silhouette through his palm. Glancing over the rest of him, a mildly interested expression on his face, he pursed his lips with a blink. "Huh. So I am."

Tails, bemused at the hedgehog's nonchalance, stood up and helped the hedgehog to an upright position. "You're also floating." He gestured at the general bobbing form of the hedgehog, but his eyes were staring at the red sneakered toes barely brushing the ground.

_This_ grabbed the blue one's attention, and he quickly glanced downward. "_What the hell_! ?" His eyes were wide, alight with slight panic, and he saw that everything the orange one said was right. As if in reflex to his shock, his legs lifted on their own so that they were parallel to the ground. Of course, this didn't help things in the least so he started to flail his arms similar to the way children do while pretending to fly. But instead of pushing down on the air, he was forcing it _up_. It didn't take long, to his credit, to notice he had to put his feet _down_ to land safely, and he did so swiftly without comment. Eventually, his immature plan worked, so to speak, because soon he could set his soles on the ground.

That is, he would've if he didn't immediately start to sink through the floor. All this did was spark a whole new round of panic and a loud, "_What the hell is going on here_! ?"

Tails watched Sonic's small freak out with thinly hidden amusement, a smirk permanently worming its way onto his face. "Well, obviously, you were such an airhead in your life that it's finally caught up to you."

Sonic stopped and glanced over at Tails. "…Ya know, somehow that doesn't at all come as a surprise. Ah, well; it was bound to happen sooner or later." From the way he spoke, it was difficult to tell if he meant his death or his newfound ability to float. He was silent afterward, gazing off to the side, a carefully blank look on his face. His emerald orbs, however, betrayed his intense, almost unreadable emotions.

Tails slowly guided Sonic's head downwards so his eyes were staring deep into the fox's blue depts. "Sonic," he gulped, low in his throat and trying to hold back tears again. "I don't know how to break this to you, so I'm gonna do it quickly." Sonic's eyes hardened, his emotions hiding themselves behind his various barriers as they were resurrected. "You're dead, Sonic. You drowned in Aquatic Ruin Zone yesterday… Well, I guess it was two days ago now, since we've passed midnight." He paused, watching Sonic's expression change to match his eyes. "Everyone's in mourning. Amy's planning your funeral. It's in Green Hill Zone."

The blue one slowly drifted towards the floor, falling to his knees without ever touching the ground. His eyes were dull and hollow, his own disbelief and denial clouding his thoughts. All he could think of… were his final moments. "It was sunset," he suddenly spoke, jolting the fox watching him with pity. "The sun was just about to go down and the sky was all sorts of pretty colors. It wasn't too hot, but it wasn't too cold. Perfect running weather."

Tails listened in morbid interest. He knew how the tale would end… but he wanted to know the full story. "I went through about half the Zone before I found the place you told me about. Turns out, it was just an old base that was still emitting signals. I was about to leave when I stepped on a slippery rock on one of the ruins. I fell into the water." Sonic's voice took on a monotonous, vacant tone. "It seemed to go on forever. No ground, no air bubbles, and not even the reeds were able to help me. I sank and sank and I had no idea how long I was in there… I kicked and flailed and struggled my hardest but it just cut my time shorter…"

He paused, a haunted look entering his eyes. Tails almost couldn't bear to watch. "Then what happened…?" he whispered, rapt with gruesome awe.

"The edges of my vision grew dark and my lungs hurt from the strain. The farther I sank, the darker it got. I couldn't move anymore and it wasn't long before I couldn't see, either. My limbs felt like lead and my mind filled with cotton. There was a great roaring in my ears, sorta like when a train passes and leaves them ringing…" He gave an owlish blink. "Then my mind drifted to other things while my body gave out. I thought about this house, our plane, our friends… you…" Tails' heart clenched as he heard these words, fresh tears springing to his eyes. "I thought about how we first met and how we first beat Eggman. I thought about when we would sit and watch movies or play video games or eat together. I thought about all the time we spent together and our friendship. My last thoughts were about how much I was going to miss my little brother…"

He finally turned his empty gaze to the teen. "My last thoughts were about you, Tails… But… I never had the chance to say goodbye…"

He returned his eyes to the floor, the emerald orbs unnaturally bright with the shine of unshed tears. Tails dropped down next to him, namesakes going limp behind him between his feet. A hand snaked its way onto the nonsolid of Sonic's shoulder, gripping tightly. "Sonic…" He mumbled, staring at the hedgehog with his own unshed tears clouding his eyes. "Sonic, it's _my_ fault this happened. I mistranslated the signal, and _then_ I let you talk me out of coming with you." His throat was thick with emotion and it made it hard to talk. "I should have been there to get you out and to get you to safety. I'm one of the worst friends you could ever have… _I'm sorry…_"

"Tails…" The hedgehog's voice cracked a bit. "It's not your fault. I was the one that told you to stay behind. If I wasn't so egotistical… didn't have to be the "big-time-hero"…" He sighed. "It's a character flaw, I know." He lifted Tails' chin to look him directly in the eyes. "You didn't cause anything. None of this is your fault. Never think that, ever. Understand me?"

The kit sniffled, rubbing at his eyes, before he nodded once, never able to deny a direct request from his brother.

Silence reigned after that, both the dead and alive caught up in their thoughts of the future. Sonic was at a loss as to what he was going to do with his existence now. Wasn't he supposed to have gone into the afterlife or something? Wasn't there some clause on the contract of life that said he deserved to go into paradise and live it up among his fellow dead? He could feel it in his… well, _bones_ was the best word he could come up with, that he wasn't supposed to be here. But, one look at his fifteen year old kid brother, the one person who had been reliant on him through almost his whole life, and he felt his heart jerk and rebel against his bones.

His heart won the battle seconds later, and he didn't _care_ that he was supposed to be up in the clouds with Chaos. What he cared about were his friends, still living and missing him.

His mind made up, he stood, ignoring the way his feet refused to touch the ground, and reached down to help Tails to his feet. The fox blinked at him, accepting the hand and climbing up easily.

"C'mon kiddo," Sonic remarked, using a nickname he hadn't uttered since Tails had hit thirteen. "Let's go get some food. I'm famished."

If Tails thought it weird that a ghost could be hungry, he didn't say anything. He simply followed Sonic out of the room, the hedgehog somehow having mastered the art of flying in a couple seconds. He paused long enough to close the door behind him, feeling as if he were shutting the book of his childhood and checking out a new one based on his future.

Sonic waited for him at the top of the stairs. He smiled at his brother, looking him up and down once before nodding to himself. "Nice shoes. They suit you."

o0o

_**1 o'clock AM**_

_**Tails' Workshop, Mystic Ruins**_

o0o

As Sonic and Tails approached the kitchen, Sonic was thinking about what was going to happen now that he was… no longer alive. Would his friends be able to beat Eggman on their own? Would they win? Or would _he_ win and finally take over Mobius? These and other questions swarmed the hedgehog like angry bees, buzzing to and fro across his waking thoughts, sending sharp pricks of regret like tiny stings of misery. Both fox and hedgehog made their way downstairs and had just entered the living room when Sonic stopped dead in his tracks.

Broken plastic was scattered all across the carpeted floor, wires and electrical chips lying about like confetti. Cords were ripped apart, exposing the thin wires inside, the rubber coverings dotting the ground. Colorful buttons had been torn from their casings, plastic and rubber touch sensing plungers barely attached anymore. It looked as if a mini tornado had rippled through the room, starting with and only destroying one thing: Sonic's video game console. Only one thought came to mind, and it came simply. "Wha… What _happened_! ?"

"Uh…" Tails started to edge across the room, heading for the open doorway of the kitchen, sensing a bubbling temper building in his friend. "I was in mourning…?" He winced as what he intended to be a statement came out as a question.

"Well, mourning you may have been, but you didn't have to go and break my game!" the hedgehog sighed in despair. "I had _OVER_ 200 lives…"

"That's only because you ran that one level with the cards over and over again!" Tails crossed his arms. "For someone with so many friends and a world to constantly save, you sure didn't have a social life." This was whispered, and the hedgehog barely heard it.

Said line, if heard at all, was left ignored. "_That_ is beside the point." Sonic crossed his own arms, nose upturned. "The point is that _I lost all my LIVES_!" He promptly lost his snobbish demeanor and broke into extremely fake hysterical sobs.

"Woah, woah _now_." The teen held out his hands, palms towards the hedgehog. "Stop being dramatic. You saved the whole game on a memory card last week."

He stopped and looked back to Tails. "I did…? OH, _yeah_. I did." He gave a grin, but then it fell out to a frown. "Well, did you at least spare everything else except the console?"

"You hid the card somewhere, if that's what you're referring to." The fox crossed his arms, not believing he was having this conversation with a dead man. "And, I don't stereotype when I'm in an emotional rage, thank you very much." He couldn't resist adding, seeing the hedgehog's expression drop.

"Well then it's a good thing I did." He nodded firmly at this. There was a long pause before the information finally sunk in for more than face value. "Waaaaiiiit… So you broke _everything_! ?"

"Well, I didn't break the wireless controller." The fox shrugged. "Because Knuckles bought that and he'd kill me if I smashed it."

"Bastard echidna…" He mumbled, hands fisted on his hips. "What about my super duper special outstandi- oh wait. I hid that too." He raised a finger to point at the ceiling in an overly dramatic 'hero pose'; the kind one would see in a comic book. "AND IT'S A GOOD THING I DID!" He lowered his hand and leveled Tails with a mildly curious look. "So. Is it fixable or do you need to go buy a new one?"

"Even if it _wasn't_ fixable, which it is, you wouldn't be able to play it." Small gloved hands gestured to an intangible physique. "Besides, I don't have any money. Because, guess what. _YOU HID THAT TOO_!" Sonic had picked up the bad habit of hiding any large sum of money he came across when he did the odd DJ job for random parties or if the government decided to give them a grant for 'going above and beyond'. At any point in time, there was probably over two thousand Mobiums hidden in the house, not to mention stashed in various locked accounts in numerous random banks. Sonic was the king of disorganization however and now Tails had no idea where any of the hidden money was or the pin numbers for the accounts. The money was as good as gone.

"Well, you never know! I might just be full of even more surprises than either of us realizes!" He paused, a thoughtful look on his face. Thinking that now would be the perfect time, he opened his mouth to say, "And, well, you actually DO have money. Lots of it." Taking a page out of the fox's book, he decided to get straight to the point. "You're rich, Tails."

Fox ears slapped against a furry skull as Tails shook his head, clucking low in his throat. "Yeah, and you're a freakin' comedian." The tone used was on that ended the conversation. He quickly spun on his heel, walking towards the kitchen. He paused when he was almost there, looking over his shoulder and jerking his head in the direction of dark room, the waning moon visible in the window. "C'mon, let's go get food."

Deciding it best not to argue, Sonic furrowed his brow but didn't reply, instead choosing to just follow his little brother out.

When he entered the small kitchen, Sonic wasn't surprised to see it shambles like the rest of the house, and he didn't say anything. Instead, he started across the room towards the fridge, attempting to open it and get inside for something. It would have worked, in theory, if he could actually _touch_ the refrigerator door. Instead of doing what he wanted, his hand simply went through the handle, through the thick insulated door and into the cold air. With a heavy sigh, Sonic rolled his eyes and, not thinking like he always did, let his face follow his hand. His whole head was shoved into the cold box and a sound of exasperation came from the hedgehog.

"Yeah, we don't have any hotdogs." Tails answered, ears finely tuned to translate Random Sonic Noises. When the blue one pulled his head out, he opened his mouth to ask something, but the fox cut him off. "We don't have any chili either."

A tan muzzle set itself into a scowl. "What _do_ we have then?"

"Fruit." A pause. "Cereal." Another silence. "Mints, grapes, and some lasagna Vanilla brought over yesterday for me…"

"Lasagna it is then."

Tails played the part of good little brother by grabbing two plates and scooping the meaty dish onto them, but he was at a loss as to how to _hand_ the plate to Sonic. It was obvious he couldn't touch anything substantial, besides Tails himself, so there was no way he could hold the dish.

"Wait…" The fox began, finally deciding that the table was as good a place as any to put their food. "Why, exactly, do you want to _eat_? Wouldn't it just go right through you?"

The speedster shrugged, coming over the table and setting himself in a floating sitting position in front of what he assumed was his food. With slight trepidation, he reached down for the fork placed beside the plate; he eased his fingers around it, willing them to hold it. "I _feel_ hungry, Tails. I'm new to this whole ghost thing, so I don't know if this is normal or not." He paused, cracking a smile. "It's not like it'll kill me to try."

Tails didn't laugh.

Sonic sighed, closing his eyes and allowing his hand to completely close around the fork. He was pleasantly surprised when he felt the weight of the utensil pull his hand down, and he yelled out in success. With gusto, he stabbed the pronged instrument of food consumption into his lasagna. Seconds later, it was in his mouth and he was chewing happily. He swallowed, and Tails was shocked to see the food simply disappear, like he had actually _eaten _it.

He didn't say anything though, just shook his head and took a bite of his own food. Some things were better left unquestioned.

o0o

_Story Notes:_

_On Appearances: _All characters have been aged significantly for this story, because they are all seven years older and wiser. Tails has gone through puberty, so his ears are black, like an actual fox's. He wears a little red vest when out of the house, so he can carry around some tools and his pilot's license as well as some money. He also has been gifted with the amazing ability of bad eyesight, so he gets glasses when reading and goggles while flying the Tornado. Sonic looks almost the same, except aged a bit. Oh, and he's got the added bonus of being luminous and ghosty. Other characters will be addressed as they pop up.

_On Ghosty Sonic™:_ This may have not been clear in the prose, but Sonic cannot physically touch or hold anything unless he has built up his stamina and energy. It takes a lot of effort for him to grab anything and hold it for a long amount of time. However, he may touch and interact with the person wearing his shoes. It's a lovely quirk that his existence has thrown in, and for that he's thankful. Both he and Tails are going through a rough time right now, and they'll need each other.

_On Robotnik_: Eggman hasn't shown up yet. He's being civil for once and allowing Sonic's friends to mourn their loss. Besides, it's no fun to take over the world without any opposition, so he's allowing them to get over Sonic's death and prepare for war.

o0o

_Author Notes:_

_Yami-sama_: Not much to say here… ((chuckles)) Well, the dialogue was fun to write and Sonic freaking out it freaking hilarious. Also… I had a hard time getting the right emotions across… so please leave a review and tell me how I did!

_Hikari-san_: We're moving right along with this story… It was soooo much fun to write. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! Please review and we'll make sure to reply! (And, _**yes**_, I _have_ played the Second Act of the Casino Zone in Sonic 4 multiple times to stock up on lives. I have 294. I'm _that_ sad. So, it was decided if I'm that lacking in a social life, then Sonic gets to be that way too.)

**NEXT TIME: Amy rears her head and drags Tails – and inadvertently Sonic – to Green Hill Zone for **_**the funeral**_**… Oh Chaos… Then, Eggman finally decides to show his own face. How will our heroes fare? **

_**REVIEW PLEASE!**_


	3. Chapter2: We'll Get There if it Kills Us

_When All is Lost, Hope is Born_

_Chapter 2 –We'll Get There if it Kills Us  
><em>

_**Warnings**__: Nothing much for this chapter… Just… __Beware the death puns…__ Also, be aware that there are two of us writing this story, and you might notice a difference in writing styles at random points._

_Notes__: Guys, we're are soooooooo sorry that this chapter has taken so long. Life caught up with us and after three weeks of spending time together (we live in different states), we finally decided to write this monster. But, since we took so long, we give a long one. You're welcome. Hope you enjoy reading as much as we enjoyed writing. _

_Oh, and __**HAPPY LATE 20**__**TH**__** BIRTHDAY, BLUE BRITCHES/BLUE BLUR/BLUE LIGHTNING (wow, it's fast!)/SONIKKU/TRUE BLUE!**_

_May you have 20 more years of being the Fastest Thing Alive! _

* * *

><p><em><strong>HERO GONE, MOBIUS MOURNS<strong>_

_Two days ago, Sonic the Hedgehog was declared dead. _

_The hero drowned in one of Aquatic Ruin Zone's many lakes in the middle of the afternoon. He was found by a local who asked to remain unnamed. _

"_All I saw was two pinpricks of green at the bottom of the water. Thinking they were emeralds, I dove in to retrieve them." The resident recounted. _

_Minutes later, authorities were on their way, and once they managed to fish the body out of the water, they were met with a depressing sight. _

"_His eyes were wide open, and they looked haunted, even in death. He knew what was happening as he passed." One of the paramedics stated._

_Once the body had been properly identified, the local authorities had no idea who to contact. Sonic had no next of kin. His closest friend was Miles "Tails" Prower, but he was underage._

_Luckily, Amy Rose, longtime friend and rumored girlfriend of Sonic called the police station. _

"_She demanded to know if what she was hearing was true, and since she was of age we told her." The police chief told reporters in a press conference later that evening. "She contacted Tails, and took care of everything."_

_The whole planet was rocked by the news. Some claimed that it was a conspiracy while others were too shocked to do much more than stare at their television sets. The next day, almost every business was closed, everyone glued to TVs for the latest news. _

_It is still undetermined if Sonic's death was a homicide or just an accident. An ongoing investigation is in the process and the police assure us that more information will be available soon. _

_Sonic's funeral will be held in approximately a week in Green Hill Zone at the local Chaos Temple. Amy Rose has requested that only close friends attend. _

_None of Sonic's other friends have been reachable for comment. _

_More on page 6._

o0o

_**12:03 PM**_

_**Tails' Workshop, Mystic Ruins**_

o0o

Tails was awakened the next morning by a banging sound. It zoomed into his ears and plowed into his brain, pounding harshly against his nerves and making him grit his teeth. He pulled his pillow roughly over his head, mumbling harshly towards the door and attempting to shove his face into the soft material of the blanket under him. "G'way," he grumbled, throwing his previously shielding pillow towards his feet in a fit of childish rage, "M'dead."

Sweet silence followed this declaration, and the fox grinned slightly before flipping onto his back and intending to burrow back into dream land.

Until the banging started again.

But, it wasn't this nefarious banging that woke the kit again; it was the slightly translucent arm that smacked him in the face and made him jerk upwards.

"Go tell whoever it is at the door that I will haunt them if they don't leave right now." Sonic's lethargic voice snapped from the left, making Tails flinch at the sudden volume. "I need my beauty rest."

"You're a ghost," Tails mumbled for what felt like the twelfth time that day, pushing himself to his feet nonetheless. "People will be more obsessed with the fact that you're still here than with how exhausted you look."

"Says you," Sonic sniffed childishly, turning away from Tails. "You were a whole lot nicer when I was alive," he grumbled to himself as he shoved his face back into the blankets.

"Tell that to me when I'm awake and I actually care."

Sonic didn't reply after that, and Tails assumed that he had gone back to sleep. The fact that a ghost – a metaphysical manifestation of Sonic's spirit without an actual tangible body – needed sleep wasn't lost on him, but he was honestly too exhausted to give a crap.

After both the fox and hedgehog had finished their food last night, there had been a unanimous decision to go crash on the living room floor – Tails more out of need than want and Sonic more of want than need. Sonic had floated a few inches off the floor for about fifteen minutes before he fell asleep and he settled completely on the carpet, defying what Tails had dubbed 'Ghost Physics' in his head. However, he was too tired to dwell on the strange lack of continuity for the hedgehog's new tangibility and just shrugged it off.

In fact, he had dreame-

"Hey, Tails! Lemme in!" A voice wormed its way from behind the door, cutting into the fox's train of thought.

Tails visibly twitched, his ears lowering and his tails slightly bristling. The voice was high pitched, too much so for the early morning hour. He cast a look at the clock, twitching again when he saw it read five past twelve – noon. Shrugging his general slowness off to a lack of sleep, he steeled his nerves and grabbed the knob, yanking the door open.

Amy Rose tumbled her way in, hand raised like she had been about to knock again.

The girl had changed a lot in the past few years. She grew her quills longer and dropped the red headband. She also lost the childish dress and moved onto more sophisticated and mature clothing. She was more modest in her styles, but they still held the definite sense that it was _hers_. She wore a pair of simple white jeans with a red tank top shirt; on this shirt was a graphic of a white rose with a bright green stem and purple thorns, a petal falling from the gently peeling flower. She kept the boots she wore throughout her childhood and adolescence, but with the addition of criss-crossing straps across the tops of the foot to keep their balance… and also so she wouldn't lose her footwear.

"Hey, Tails," the girl greeted, her regular bright smile looking almost forced as she caught herself from her fall. "How you holding up?"

Suddenly, the fox was painfully aware of the fact that he was supposed to be mourning. He cast a look over his shoulder, where the tips of Sonic's quills could barely be seen. Turning back, he attempted to make his eyes water a little, rocking back and squashing one of his tails beneath his foot in an attempt to bring forth tears. "Oh, you know," he sniffed, "we all mourn in our own way."

"I know what you mean," Amy mumbled, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I haven't been able to sleep."

Unfortunately for Tails, he didn't hear this, because Sonic had finally roused himself fully into the land of the living – per se – and had yelled across the room. "Hey! At the risk of sounding like Knuckles, _shut up, _would ya? !" Suddenly, he was on a tangent. "What's a hedgehog gotta do around here to get some shut eye? ! I mean, I've drowned, died, and come back all in about four hours, and I can't get some silence to recoup! You are cruel world. I hate you."

"The world hates you too." Tails mumbled out of the side of his mouth.

"What?" Amy blinked and looked at the fox strangely.

"Um, nothing." Quickly, trying to save face, the fifteen year old raised a guiding hand and motioned to the other side of the room. "Let's go into the kitchen and get something to drink."

Amy didn't reply past sighing and starting forward. Tails followed uneasily, his eyes drifting towards Sonic's now violently moving form. He was thoroughly engrossed in some brand of flailing tantrum, his arms and legs being thrown about like playthings and his head rolling from one side to the other. The fox shook his head.

Death apparently took years off your personality.

_Or_, he corrected himself, _Sonic's just being Sonic._

Nodding to himself, he didn't notice when Amy froze in front of him, her eyes glued just over the couch. Tails slammed into her back, sending them both falling to the ground.

He cursed to himself, flinching when Amy _accidently-on-purpose_ kicked him in the leg as she was struggling to right herself.

"Sorry Amy," he apologized, rubbing his now throbbing appendage. "I didn't see you stop."

"It's okay Tails," she responded, standing fully and reaching down to help him. "I was just shocked to see Sonic's video game console in pieces."

"Uh, yeah… You see… About that…"

The girl raised a hand, cutting him off. "I don't wanna know." She then turned on her heel and continued on her way toward the kitchen without another word. Tails followed, glancing once again toward the middle of the room, expecting to see Sonic's sleepy form.

His heart nearly stopped when his eyes alighted on bare blankets, blue hedgehog nowhere to be seen.

"Hey, Tails." Luckily, his heart was jolted back into action when Sonic's disembodied voice came from the left of him, sending him spinning in that direction. "Lookit what I can do!"

The fox placed a hand on his chest, taking a deep breath. "_Sonic_! Don't do that! You scared me half to death!" He paused. "And where are you? !"

Suddenly, a hand grabbed at his wrist and yanked his whole arm forward until his palm was pressed on something rounded and solid, yet completely invisible. Tails' mouth dropped open, and he ripped his hand back as if it had been burnt. "What the heck? !"

"Tails…" Amy stuck her head out of the kitchen, eyeing him suspiciously. "Are you coming?"

"Um…" Casting one last look at where he believed Sonic's invisible head to be, he turned. "Yeah."

o0o

_**1:15 PM**_

_**Tails' Workshop, Mystic Ruins**_

o0o

About an hour later, the world found Amy and Tails seated at the table. The kitchen was moderately sized with an island and a table with three chairs. One of the chairs looked more like a stool with armrests than an actual chair, because the back was missing – a sure sign that it belonged to something with quills. The chair exactly opposite had no lower back, signaling a long tailed individual's every day haunt; a small, red vest was draped over the back of the second chair. Both fox and hedgehog sat sipping on cups of coffee and discussing small details for the upcoming funeral. Amy seemed broken up about the whole ordeal, and Tails supposed that he should have been too.

If Sonic's ghost hadn't been distracting him by poking him in the side of the head.

It was taking all of Tails' concentration to not react and to pay attention to Amy at the same time – a simple concept in theory, but difficult in practice, because Sonic was persistent. Luckily, the hedgehog had decided to be silent, so the fox wasn't completely distracted.

"I don't know if I'll ever be able to completely accept the fact that he's gone, you know?" Amy insisted on having a deep conversation with Tails about Sonic's death, pouring on the wobbly voice of girl-about-to-cry. "I sorta feel like my heart hasn't accepted that he's not coming back." She paused, eyeing him as he slowly nodded. "What about you?"

A rough finger jabbed him in the skull, making him flinch. "My heart has accepted that he _should_ be gone." He answered truthfully, gritting his teeth. "But my head keeps telling me that he's still here with us."

"Oh, I doubt that he's, like, haunting anyone or anything." Amy's voice was full of conviction. "His life was too full of love and friendship for him to feel the need to stick around." Tails opened his mouth to reply, but Amy tutted and stood up, grabbing the mugs they had been drinking out of and walking towards the sink. "Don't bother arguing with me Tails," she commanded, running the cups under some warm water. "I just can't think about how awful it would be for Sonic to still be here and not able to talk to anyone!"

"Whoever said that he couldn't talk to anyone?" The response was mumbled, and Tails placed his head into his palm, resting his elbow on the table. "I was just saying tha-!"

Sonic, still in his comfortable position as the invisible instigator, suddenly let out a small, startled yelp as he flashed into Tails' field of vision, accompanied by a palpable twinge-like pulsation of ethereal energy. The blue one blinked in surprise as his transparent state of being returned once more into a translucent opacity. Before he could open his mouth to make a comment, Tails leapt from his seat and grabbed the hedgehog's wrist, pulling the incorporeal body over to the cupboard. The pantry's door was partially open when the fox arrived in front of it; wrenching the door open fully, the younger shoved the ghost of this brother inside and slammed the door shut.

Amy spun around at the commotion. "What was that all about, Tails?"

The fox whipped his head towards the female. "Um…" He trailed off, eyes trailing back to the closet, "The door was open." He paused and Amy looked at him oddly. "I have a problem with open doors." As if to prove his point, he crossed the room to close off the entrance of the room, the smooth wood sliding closed with a firm latching sound. "See?"

The pink one nodded slowly, twisting back around to rinse the glasses off. Placing them in a dish drainer, she looked at him again, leaning backwards onto the counter. "So, since the… you know… is in a few days, I figured we could go and find ourselves something nice to wear to show our respect."

Tails' brow furrowed slightly, a troubled look entering his eyes. With Sonic never really leaving him, he now knew, it was still a difficult concept for him to really absorb – that the blue one was really and truly _dead._ He rested his back on the door he just closed, his mind shifting through a plethora of buzzing thoughts, the white noise they created within his skull driving him nearly insane. Eventually, he nodded in agreement, rolling to his feet. "Yeah, we can-"

A loud noise came from the cupboard, cutting the teen off mid-sentence. Amy, back in her seat, tilted her head a bit. "What was that?"

Rushing over, the golden kit yanked on the knob, shoving his head in and turning the overhead light on. Sonic stood/floated in the middle, a look of shock and mild confusion frozen on his features. Tails' eyes trailed him for a small number of seconds before finding that a minute box had fallen off of a shelf and onto the floor. Bending over to pick it up, Tails placed the cardboard cube back in its rightful place. Clicking the light off and replacing the wooden portal, he moved to sit back down, heaving a sigh.

"Something on your mind?" the pastel colored young lady asked, her jade orbs sympathetic.

Tails sighed, rubbing a finger into the table and tracing small circles. "I dunno what to think Amy; he was my best friend and only person I could truly depend on." Ignoring her hurt look, he moved to continue. "It's just so hard to comprehend. One day he was here and the nex-!" He was cut off when a loud crash and then a curse came from the pantry.

"Hey, Tails! Lemme out. I promise I'll be good!"

"What was _that_? !" Amy asked, starting to push away from the table.

"Uh..." Tails rose faster than her and threw out his hands. "It was nothing! S-sit down! Something probably fell again." He waited until Amy was fully seated again before stalking across the kitchen and throwing the door open. "Sonic!" He hissed, swiveling his head around to find the hedgehog in the gloom.

"Here I am!" Suddenly, green eyes were right in front of his head, and Tails took a tumble backward, a startled cry ejecting itself from his throat.

"What's wrong? !" Amy gasped, darting up once again.

"N-nothing." Tails answered, trying to slow his heartbeat. "Just a really big roach."

"I take offense to that." Sonic hissed at him, crossing his arms.

"Oh, shut up. You're dead." As soon as the response was out of his mouth, he paused. "Uh, I mean... You'll be dead soon enough, roach fiend!" Turning the light back on, he glared at the unloving one. "Sonic, whatever you're doing in here, stop it! Amy doesn't know about your current…" he groped for the right word, "_condition_, and I'm sure you'd agree we'd both like to _keep it_ that way! So _be quiet_!"

Sonic turned doe eyes on the smaller. "_Me_? Moi? I'm no trouble; I'm an angel! A fallen angel! A walking god! I-"

"Will soon die again, if you don't _shut up!_" Tails struggled not to raise his voice. Taking a calming breath, he directed a glare at the blue one again. "Just… wait until we leave the room, okay?"

"Can do, little bro!" Sonic's eternal optimism had returned.

"Good." The fox scooped a small can off the floor, pointedly ignoring his brother's innocent (guilty) grin, and he gave a repeat performance. As soon as the shelf once more housed the tin cylinder, the light was off, the door closed, and the fox settled at the kitchen island. The vulpine and the hedgehog sat talking for about another ten minutes before a loud banging sound halted their words once more. The obnoxious racket came from the very closet where a certain twenty-two year was being held captive.

"Tails, c'mon! Lemme out! It's dark in here…"

"…Wh-What was that, Tails…?" Amy stuttered out, her large eyes ample with startled fright.

The kit jumped, his own eyes wide. Feigning innocence and trepidation, he forced his voice to a tremble. "I-I'm not exactly sure…" Easing from his seat and slowly over to Amy, he offered her an arm. "C'mon. I'll take you to the Tornado so we can leave."

Amy grasped on his thin appendage and stood, allowing herself to be led away. Nodding, she gave an obviously strained smile. "Sure, Tails. We should be going now. Beat the crowd and all that."

The golden colored male gave his own grin, albeit his was more natural. "Good idea." Raising his voice obviously, the younger snuck a look over his shoulder. "You know," he began, giving the pink one his full attention, "I've been reading up a bit on ghosts – interesting topic, really. And did you know that they have this amazingly peculiar ability to pass through any solid object? They distort and move their molecules so that they literally go right through things. It's just a basic skill that these supernatural being possess. It's extraordinary. It's right up there with invisibility."

"Oh, really?" Amy's voice trailed off as the duo walked out of the room, Tails closing the door behind him as they left. Sonic, trusting that the coast was clear, blinked and closed his eyes in concentration. Shifting his 'weight', he slipped his way outside the closet. Opening his eyes, he swung his head around in mild satisfaction when he realized he was, indeed, in the kitchen. Nodding with a smirk, he decided to follow his friends as the invisible eye in the sky. He snickered as he looked down at the younger two. They had no idea they were bring tailed.

"So, Amy, where were you planning on going to buy these clothes?" Tails asked, tilting his head in curiosity.

"Starlight Zone. Do you know where that's at?" the pink female replied, countering with her own question.

"Yeah, it's on South Island." He paused, thinking. "We have to be in Green Hill for the funeral anyway, so it's just as well that we head on over there," the fox answered. As he went into the workshop, he froze, suddenly remembering something. "Um… Ames?"

"Yes, Tails?" she asked, stopping to look at him.

"Uh, well, the Tornado is kinda… _incapacitated_ right now… So… we'll have to take the long way," he explained, an awkward smile on his face as he stared at the bits and pieces that were once the Tornado.

"Oh, well, that's fine, I guess." She gave his shoulder a pat.

"Okay, well, you can go on outside. I have some business to take care of before we leave," Tails told her, giving her hand a comforting squeeze. She gave him a short, one-armed, side-hug and nodded, exiting the house. The kitsune looked around, whispering loudly and harshly, "Sonic!"

"Yeeees…?"

"AH! Don't _do_ that, you moron! We don't _all_ have nerves of steel, you know!" Tails placed a hand on his chest once more, sure that, because of this day alone, his blood pressure would be through the roof.

"Sorry," Sonic murmured with a sheepish smile. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"We'll talk about that later." Tails replied quickly, grabbing the red vest off the back of a chair and slipping it around his shoulders. Quickly, he snatched a set of keys off the counter, a small black box, and an equally small blue wallet – containing exactly twenty-seven and a half Møbïums, his driver's license, pilot's license, Passport, and Citizen's ID (stating his birthplace as Cocoa Island, his birth date, his eye color, height, and full name). Slowly, he turned, staring Sonic in the eye. "Right now, Amy and I are leaving to go to South Island, so you can stay here." Sneaking a peek at the calendar, he mentally traced the days before continuing. "I'll see you in three days. You can survive on your own for that long, right?"

"Oh, sure. You can count on me!" the blue one gave his trademark smirk and a thumbs up.

Tails avoided giving a sarcastic comeback and just nodded complacently. "Whatever you say. See you later, Sonic."

Swooping in to give his little brother a hug, the hedgehog genuinely beamed and gave him a small push towards the outside world.

o0o

_**1:30-2:05 PM**_

_**Station Square – Mystic Ruins Transit, Crush Canal**_

o0o

Tails sighed, leaning his head on the window of the small train car, staring out over the water. Next to him, Amy was sitting straight up with her eyes closed, as if in a trance. The car was packed with humans, all dressed in beige and travelling back to the mainland. Most were whispering about random things, but his ears only picked up things pertaining to his life.

"_Poor kid, he really looked up to Sonic."_

"_-only people to live in Mystic Ruins besides that Big guy. I wonder if the kid'll move…" _

"_Did you know that Sonic was deathly afraid of water?" _

"_Tails is only fifteen. Who'll take care of him now?"_

"_Who will save us when Eggman comes ba-?"_

The mumblings were cut off as Amy suddenly coughed low in her throat and opened one jade eye, seeming to stare in every direction at once.

The rest of the ride was silent.

o0o

_**2:10 PM**_

_**Station Square Airport – Mobian Faction**_

o0o

When Amy and Tails walked into the airport, they were greeted with the dull roar of a large crowd. Mobians of every size, shape, and color milled about, attempting to get themselves and their families to the correct terminals.

"C'mon Tails," Amy called back, shouldering her purse. "Don't drag behind."

"Yes Mother," Tails mumbled, digging his hands into the pockets of his vest.

Amy chose to ignore the sarcasm, instead opting to casually walk up to a small kiosk and randomly poke at the touch screen taking up much of its surface.

The next fifteen minutes passed slowly for Tails, as he ran out of floor tiles to count and people to watch. Most people were commuting off the mainland to be with their families and dressed for vacations. The fox envied them – their lives were in equilibrium while his had been thrown hilter-kilter. He bit his lip, attempting to stop the tears fighting their way to the surface. Now that he was out of Sonic's ghostly presence, he couldn't help but question the whole of the early morning before. What if his mind had simply supplied the blue apparition as a way to help him cope? What if Sonic's soul wasn't actually back at the Workshop? What if it was happily feasting with Chaos and those of the past dead?

"Tails," Amy called back, breaking into his thoughts. "Help me, will'ya? My Passport won't scan and I think I left my ID at home."

The fox sighed, but did what was asked of him, easily tapping things into the screen with nimble fingers. The screen flickered through at least half a dozen password prompts, each of which Tails easily bypassed with a quick twitch of his fingers. Eventually, he was staring at a black screen of encrypted information, much of it in the language of code writers.

"It says here that your Passport expired two months ago." Tails was mumbling to himself, but Amy's ears pricked. She didn't say anything however, just opened up the red jacket of her Passport and gazed inside, her brow furrowing.

She opened her mouth to speak, but a gruff voice from behind the counter in front of them cut her off.

"Oi, punk! What do you think you're doing? ! That's property of the city of Station Square! Tampering with it is a crime against the Mainland(*****)!"

Tails easily raised an arm, his Passport flipping open, shoving the ID into the other Mobian's face. "My name is Tails Prower. I helped to update the software currently being used in said Station Square Property."

The Manx behind the counter was taken aback by his quick, slightly-snarky response, and he held up his hands. "I-I apologize," he amended quickly, tapping something into the keyboard in front of him. "If you would please scan your preferred form of ID…?"

Tails did as asked, slipping his Passport through the machine with one clean swipe. The man on the other side of the computer gasped quietly to himself.

"It says here that you are eligible to update to First Class. Would you like to accept?"

Tails shared a look with Amy, grinning slightly. "Yes, two please."

The clerk printed out the tickets, and passed them to the teen. "Two to Metropolis Zone, Westside Island?" At Tails' nod, he smiled and continued. "Terminal three." Easily, he swept an arm towards the gates. "This way, if you would."

* * *

><p><em>Story Notes:<em>

_* Our Mobius is made up of a Mainland – where most of the human settlements are located – and many Islands – of every shape and size, where most of the Mobians live. __**ALSO, PLEASE NOTE**_: _We drew a very rough map of our Mobius layout and it might be on deviantART eventually. If you would like to see it, there should be a link on our profile. _

_On Ghost Physics: _Yeah, don't think about them too much. They're consistent in our minds, but not so much in anybody else's.

_On Appearances: _ All characters have been aged significantly for this story, because they are all seven years older and wiser. Amy showed up this time, and she's the most changed character of the bunch, because she had a lot of growing up to do.

_**NEXT TIME: Traveling… Lots of traveling. Sonic becomes a reluctant tag-along. Then, the funeral (we swear this time). **_

_**REVIEW PLEASE?**_**!**


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